Author Topic: PCI audio interface recommendation for Beige G3  (Read 3643 times)

Offline nebraska

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PCI audio interface recommendation for Beige G3
« on: August 12, 2020, 08:44:47 AM »
Hello, lately I have acquired a 266 Beige G3. I am using a Powermac G5 for all the Midi and recording stuff with no librarian and a generic 24-bit sound which I find too complex as I am using mostly 16-bit samplers and synths. G3 will be replacing that. I have a Macman serial box I'd used with my IIGS so Midi is not the problem here. I don't know much about Macintosh audio interfaces but I can say I am looking for a '97-'01 era OS9 compatible PCI  audio interface recommendation. Please let me know, thank you.

Offline GaryN

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Re: PCI audio interface recommendation for Beige G3
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2020, 03:03:53 PM »
Find an M-Audio Delta 44 or 66. 4 ins and outs, they're affordable, 100% happy in OS9 or OSX, rock solid, sound great and run anywhere all the way to 24/96.
The 44 and 66 are identical except the 66 also has a S/PDIF connection.
They're commonly available on fleabay for less than $100. Note there are a lot of listings there for partial components where the breakout box evidently got separated from the PCI card so make sure you're getting a complete unit. If it looks too cheap to be true, it's not true.

There's also the Delta 1010 with 8 ins and outs but I don't know if a 266 G3 would be up to that.

Offline nanopico

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Re: PCI audio interface recommendation for Beige G3
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2020, 07:49:05 AM »
Just an FYI.  I have a beige G3 as well and ran 3 Delta 1010 cards in it for a while.
I had read somewhere that the pci bus on those beige g3's had problems with PCI audio cards (similar to the compatibility with the pci-x and the maudio cards in G5's). Can't remember where I read it or if it was true, but I never had a problem with it.  I was even running it with an overclocked memory bus and cpu.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, or break it so you can fix it!

Offline GaryN

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Re: PCI audio interface recommendation for Beige G3
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2020, 08:33:52 AM »
Just an FYI.  I have a beige G3 as well and ran 3 Delta 1010 cards in it for a while.
I had read somewhere that the pci bus on those beige g3's had problems with PCI audio cards (similar to the compatibility with the pci-x and the maudio cards in G5's). Can't remember where I read it or if it was true, but I never had a problem with it.  I was even running it with an overclocked memory bus and cpu.
THREE? Did you actually have a big mixer and use all or most of those simultaneously? At what bit rate? And what DAW?

Offline nanopico

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Re: PCI audio interface recommendation for Beige G3
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2020, 12:43:28 PM »
Just an FYI.  I have a beige G3 as well and ran 3 Delta 1010 cards in it for a while.
I had read somewhere that the pci bus on those beige g3's had problems with PCI audio cards (similar to the compatibility with the pci-x and the maudio cards in G5's). Can't remember where I read it or if it was true, but I never had a problem with it.  I was even running it with an overclocked memory bus and cpu.
THREE? Did you actually have a big mixer and use all or most of those simultaneously? At what bit rate? And what DAW?

Usually I worked at 24  bit 48 Khz but some times at 24 bit 96 Khz. 
I use Cubase on it and still do, but now on a QS and a motu interface.
I have a 24 channel ramsa board I used with the beige g3 for a while. Wasn't common to do 24 channels at once and if I did it was usually at 24/48k  Usually I did 8 - 12 channels of tracking at one pass.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, or break it so you can fix it!

Offline GaryN

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Re: PCI audio interface recommendation for Beige G3
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2020, 01:51:17 PM »
Damn, I'm surprised. It's very often a hair-puller just to get 3 Delta cards to peacefully coexist and handling more than the 8-12 you say on the 66MHz bus is a crash looking for the most inconvenient moment to happen…

You must just be living right…  ;D

Offline nanopico

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Re: PCI audio interface recommendation for Beige G3
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2020, 02:06:06 PM »
if I remember right it was pain getting it setup initially, but once it started working I just left.
Also the wordclock IO on the 1010 doesn't work correctly in OS 9.  It would never work at 96k and only occasionally work at 48k
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, or break it so you can fix it!